Data input systems such as predictive virtual keyboards, predictive speech input systems and others are increasingly used to enter information into electronic devices and computing systems. Where electronic devices have a small form factor it can be burdensome for users to manually type in data using virtual keyboards. Where speech input is difficult due to background environment noise and/or the need to avoid disturbing others it is burdensome to speak individual data items for input.
Data input systems which use predictive technology to predict candidate next data input items are increasingly available. These include predictive virtual keyboards and other data input systems which offer candidate next data items, such as words, phrases, sentences, emoji, images, stickers, emoticons and others for the user to select. The user can then give a single input action such as a speech input, touch input or other modality of input to input the candidate data item.
From the point of view of multi-lingual users, existing predictive data input systems are often frustrating to use. A user who enters an English word and then tries to input a French word in the same sentence often finds the French word autocorrected to an English word and/or finds that candidates which are offered for input are all English words. This increases burden on the end user who then has to type in the complete French word letter by letter. In the case that phrases or sentences are being predicted a user would have to speak the whole French sentence rather than simply speak one command word in order to select a candidate offering of that French sentence.
The embodiments described below are not limited to implementations which solve any or all of the disadvantages of known data input systems.